The present invention relates to an adjustable bottle stopper for opened bottles.
In the sparkling wine and gaseous beverage field there is a need for an adjustable bottle stopper that can be adjusted to stopper a variety of bottle necks, that will form airtight seals with the bottle necks of the bottles stoppered, and that can be removed from the bottles stoppered using a minimal amount of force. The standard diameter of most wine bottle necks is 18.5 mm+/xe2x88x920.5 mm.
In the past, various type of closure devices have been introduced. The devices can be classified into two general groups. The first group are devices that expand inside the mouth of the bottle and the second group are devices that attach to the outside of the neck bottle.
Two immediate problems that may arise with these devices are as follows: (1) the devices fail to produce an airtight seal with the bottles, and (2) the devices that produce an airtight seal are not adjustable for the stopping of a range of bottles. A third problem that may arise is that the devices are not made to be removed with a minimal amount of force from the bottles.
Information relevant to attempts to address these problems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,153,275, D404,647, 5,722,548 and 5,813,554. Further relevant information can be found in WO Patent No. WO9918003. However, each one of theses references suffers from one or more of the above disadvantages.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an adjustable bottle stopper that is adjustable to fit inside the neck of bottles having an inside diameter between 16 mm to about 25 mm, that will form an airtight seal with the inside of the neck of the bottle, and that is removable using a minimal amount of physical force.
The present invention is directed to an adjustable bottle stopper that satisfies the following needs: (1) the need to stopper wine or gaseous bottles in which said bottles have bottle necks that have inside diameters of between 16 mm to about 25 mm, (2) the need that when said bottles are stoppered said bottles produce an airtight seal with the inside of said bottle necks, and (3) the need of removing said bottle stoppers from said bottle necks using a minimal amount of force. An adjustable bottle stopper having features of the present invention comprises a threaded disk nut, a bolt which is screwed into said threaded disk nut until the head of the bolt is flush with one of the ends of the threaded disk nut, a lower pressure stamp nut in which said threaded disk nut is screwed into, a cylindrical elastic spacer that is centrally bored that is mounted on the screw part of the bolt after performing the above steps, an upper pressure stamp, that is centrally bored, that is mounted on top of the cylindrical elastic spacer after said cylindrical elastic spacer is mounted on the bolt, and a handle nut which is screwed and locked on said bolt after said upper pressure stamp is mounted. In an embodiment of the present invention, the upper pressure stamp and the lower pressure stamp nut will serve as sleeves for the cylindrical elastic spacer so that when the device is operational, the cylindrical elastic spacer will expand symmetrically around its periphery when the cylindrical elastic spacer is compressed between the upper pressure stamp and the lower pressure stamp nut. Another embodiment of the adjustable bottle stopper will define the lower pressure stamp nut of being a housing that is a chamber of compression that is calibrated to allow for the expansion of the cylindrical elastic spacer from about 16 mm to about 25 mm. A further embodiment of the bottle stopper will further comprise a nylon washer between the upper pressure stamp and the handle nut to minimize the friction between these two part of the device when the device is being utilized.
An advantage of this invention is that it allows bottles to be stoppered by one multi use bottle stopper that is adjustable and that is easily removable after said bottles have been stoppered.
Another advantage of the invention is that this adjustable bottle stopper does not lend itself to be easily taken apart, this has been a disadvantage in some previous models that have not proved to be functional.
A further advantage in the stopper is that an airtight fit is made between the stopper and the bottle that is being stoppered so that the contents inside the bottle maintain their desired consistency.